Gainsbourg

Share via

Based on a biographical novel of the songwriter, the film, with its odd animated character, has more romps than insights

Serge Gainsbourg — saggy-faced perv, seducer of some of the great beauties of
the Sixties and Seveties and dedicated supporter of Gitanes’ market share —
gets the movie treatment in a playful, somewhat flippant biopic.

Gainsbourg features the rather odd stylistic device of having the central
character tailed by a ropey-looking animated character. As a child,
Gainsbourg’s animated buddy is a monstrous Jewish caricature from a piece of
Nazi propaganda — a face that the boy recognises as his own. As he grows
older, the creature that stalks him is his own exaggerated alter-ego,
equipped with hedonistic appetites, an insouciant sneer and a